In this article, I offer an ecocritical approach to video games that can help analyze how game designers can use choice-based game mechanics to offer audiences a way to confront humanity's role in the climate crisis. I Was a Teenage Exocolonist seamlessly integrates gameplay and narrative to help players cultivate new understandings about the anthropocene: “It takes little effort to render a planet inhospitable, but significant dedication to restore it” (Exocolonist, Age 13).
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